Page 47 of Unexpected Complication

Her spoon hovered in midair as she stared at me, her eyes wary.

“Would you?” she whispered.

No, I wouldn’t. But I didn’t tell her that.

I shrugged. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make you safe.”

“Shooting me will make me safe? Your thinking’s a little messed up, fuckwit.”

I bit back my smile.

Ms. Mouthy was coming back.

“Drugs are bad for your brain.” I smirked at her. “Haven’t you ever heard the expression, ‘Just say no to drugs’?”

Her cheeks reddened, and I winked at her. I wanted her to smile.

She rolled her eyes and kept eating.

I ate two bowls of her delicious, drug-free, soup. Then I pushed the bowl away, knowing I should really save some for Sean.

If he’d eat it again.

“That was really good,” I praised her quietly.

“Thanks.”

“Did you cook a lot at home?”

She looked up, her eyes sad. “Yes. My dad liked my cooking.”

“Tell me about your dad.”

“He was a great guy.”

“He must have been to have a daughter like you.”

Her bottom lip quivered a little. “I loved him.”

“When did he die?”

“Almost a year ago.”

“You’ve been on the streets ever since?”

“No, for about six months.”

“Tell me, Skylar. Tell me your story.”

“My mom and dad divorced when I was young. I lived with my mom most of my life, but my dad was still involved. I saw him on holidays and the summer. He always remembered my birthday, and he called a lot, just to check in.”

“Did you have a good relationship with your mom?”

She shrugged. “We were close, but we were more like friends than mom and daughter. She was always forgetting to pay the bills or pick me up from school, buy groceries, that sort of thing. I had to grow up fast and be the responsible one. When I was sixteen, she got remarried. I didn’t like her husband, Jack, or the lifestyle, and I decided to go live with my dad for a while.”

“Lifestyle?”

She wrinkled her nose. “He was much younger than she was, and he was in a band. She followed him around. She kept pulling me out of school, and we’d stay in these awful places. I hated it, so I called my dad and asked if I could come there to live, and he said yes.”